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Filmmaker claims to find Jesus' 'Lost Tomb'
February 27, 2007
Jesus' 'Lost Tomb'?
Filmmakers and scholars yesterday unveiled two stone ossuaries they said could have contained the remains of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, but several other scholars derided claims in a new documentary as unfounded and contradictory to basic Christian beliefs. "The Lost Tomb of Jesus," produced by Oscar-winning director James Cameron and airing March 4 on the Discovery Channel, argues that 10 ancient ossuaries -- small caskets used to store bones -- discovered in a suburb of Jerusalem in 1980 may have contained the bones of Jesus and his family. One of the caskets even bears the title "Judah, son of Jesus," hinting that Jesus may have had a son, according to the film. The very fact that Jesus had an ossuary would contradict the Christian belief that he was resurrected and ascended to heaven. "There's a definite sense that you have to pinch yourself, that what you're doing, that e-mail you just sent, is real," Cameron said at yesterday's news conference. He told NBC'S "Today" show earlier in the day that statisticians found "in the range of a couple of million to one in favor of it being them." Simcha Jacobovici, the Toronto filmmaker who directed the documentary, said that a name of one of the ossuaries -- "Mariamene" -- is a major support to the argument that the tomb is that of Jesus and his family. In early Christian texts, "Mariamene" is the name of Mary Magdalene, he said. Most Christians believe Jesus' s body spent three days at the site of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem's Old City. The burial site identified in Cameron's documentary is in a southern Jerusalem neighborhood nowhere near the church. In 1996, when the British Broadcasting Corp. aired a short documentary on the same subject, archeologists challenged the claims. Amos Kloner, the first archeologist to examine the site, said the idea fails to hold up by archeological standards but makes for profitable television. "They just want to get money for it," Kloner said. Shimon Gibson, one of three archeologists who discovered the tomb in 1980, said yesterday of the film : "I'm skeptical, but that's the way I am. I'm willing to accept the possibility." The film's claims, however, have raised the ire of Christian leaders in the Holy Land. Stephen Pfann, a biblical scholar at the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem who was interviewed in the documentary, said its hypothesis holds little weight. "I don't think that Christians are going to buy into this," Pfann said. "But skeptics, in general, would like to see something that pokes holes into the story that so many people hold dear.
Wow, this is explosive stuff...I love all these conspiracy stuff...Looking forward to see this documentary if I can get it !
POP!
Filmmaker claims to find Jesus' 'Lost Tomb'
February 27, 2007
Jesus' 'Lost Tomb'?
Filmmakers and scholars yesterday unveiled two stone ossuaries they said could have contained the remains of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, but several other scholars derided claims in a new documentary as unfounded and contradictory to basic Christian beliefs. "The Lost Tomb of Jesus," produced by Oscar-winning director James Cameron and airing March 4 on the Discovery Channel, argues that 10 ancient ossuaries -- small caskets used to store bones -- discovered in a suburb of Jerusalem in 1980 may have contained the bones of Jesus and his family. One of the caskets even bears the title "Judah, son of Jesus," hinting that Jesus may have had a son, according to the film. The very fact that Jesus had an ossuary would contradict the Christian belief that he was resurrected and ascended to heaven. "There's a definite sense that you have to pinch yourself, that what you're doing, that e-mail you just sent, is real," Cameron said at yesterday's news conference. He told NBC'S "Today" show earlier in the day that statisticians found "in the range of a couple of million to one in favor of it being them." Simcha Jacobovici, the Toronto filmmaker who directed the documentary, said that a name of one of the ossuaries -- "Mariamene" -- is a major support to the argument that the tomb is that of Jesus and his family. In early Christian texts, "Mariamene" is the name of Mary Magdalene, he said. Most Christians believe Jesus' s body spent three days at the site of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem's Old City. The burial site identified in Cameron's documentary is in a southern Jerusalem neighborhood nowhere near the church. In 1996, when the British Broadcasting Corp. aired a short documentary on the same subject, archeologists challenged the claims. Amos Kloner, the first archeologist to examine the site, said the idea fails to hold up by archeological standards but makes for profitable television. "They just want to get money for it," Kloner said. Shimon Gibson, one of three archeologists who discovered the tomb in 1980, said yesterday of the film : "I'm skeptical, but that's the way I am. I'm willing to accept the possibility." The film's claims, however, have raised the ire of Christian leaders in the Holy Land. Stephen Pfann, a biblical scholar at the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem who was interviewed in the documentary, said its hypothesis holds little weight. "I don't think that Christians are going to buy into this," Pfann said. "But skeptics, in general, would like to see something that pokes holes into the story that so many people hold dear.
Wow, this is explosive stuff...I love all these conspiracy stuff...Looking forward to see this documentary if I can get it !
